Southport & Ainsdale’s Richard Kilshaw

You only entered the industry five years ago and now you’re the general manager of a very wellregarded club that’s hosted two Ryder Cups. Do you pinch yourself at your rapid rise? Very much so. I count myself extremely lucky that I have been given these opportunities. To manage an historic ex-Ryder Cup club that’s held numerous R&A events – I do pinch myself.

You were previously a civil servant for 25 years and took the GCMA Principles course in 2014 to gain a grounding in golf club management. How important was that week in establishing your subsequent career? It was very late for me to start, at 45, and I’m 51 now. I am glad I grabbed the bull by the horns, I really am, and the GCMA course was invaluable to me. I learned an awful lot. It was also great to meet people with the same goals as me and to network with people. I think there’s a picture of me on the GCMA website, with the Clifton bridge behind me, with the group that I attended the course with.

I’m glad I did the research about the GCMA course. I always do my research before I undertake any task or implement any processes. I research and ensure it is right and that’s the case in whatever I do when putting processes in place.

What is it about your particular skills then – what you bring to a golf club from a management perspective – that has helped you move so quickly through the ranks? I try and think about what a member would want to hear and what a member would appreciate. I’d like to think I’m

approachable, and not just for members but for staff as well. I believe in good communication. I’d rather members, staff and so on know about their club and the business than not know. To me communication is key. I like to keep people updated.

I’ve got the experience of being a member, a scratch golfer, of being a captain, of being the chair of a council at Chorley. And I’ve got the experience of being in the public sector and dealing with people.

I used to go out and inspect properties and so I’ve always had that element of dealing with people one-to-one.

It sounds unusual for a manager to have served at every stage

of the club process. As you say, you’ve been a captain, a committee member and chair, a volunteer at tournaments and now a golf club manager. You’ve seen the golf club environment from every side… I think I see the full 360 – that’s the way I see it. I also like to think that I put everything into it, with regards to that experience.

Everything is a learning process and I see it as obtaining new skills. For example, while I was at Fulford, we held the R&A Girls’ Under-16 Amateur Championship and that was my first proper involvement with The R&A.

I loved it. From the meetings with The R&A five or six months before the event, putting a time framework in place, getting the infrastructure in place, ensuring all the I’s and t’s were dotted and crossed for players coming over for practice rounds, working with the board on timetables for volunteers to ensure all the catering was right, the bar service, making sure everyone worked as one, it was a great learning experience.

Do you think then – given your background – that you understand the point of view of committee members because you’ve been on the other side of the table – so to speak? You’ve asked the questions they are now asking you… It’s going back to the 360. That’s where my experience, as serving

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as a volunteer, puts me in good stead. I used to go up at 8pm for a meeting on a Monday night at Chorley.

It was drenching with rain and I lived 13 miles away from the club, but I did it. If you think about it, I wouldn’t be sitting here now if I hadn’t – and not to blow my own trumpet – had that dedication to the members.

The members voted me on, like any committee, and so I’d like to think that I’ve done something right.

Tell us about Southport & Ainsdale… It was established in 1906 and it’s a James Braid design found on the famous England’s Golf Coast. It sits along the network of courses from Royal Lytham in the north to Royal Liverpool in the south.

It’s a great test of golf and has a lot of history. It’s held a lot of qualifying events for The R&A and ladies’ championships but we are famous in the 1930s for hosting two consecutive Ryder Cups on these shores – in 1933 and 1937. The latter was the very first occasion an away team won the Ryder Cup.

The course has evolved, as every one does, and a couple of years ago golf architect Marc Westenborg redesigned the 1st and 18th.

There are great vistas and it’s just a classic Braid design. I do feel like we are forgotten sometimes as Southport & Ainsdale.

When people come here, what do they find? What keeps them here? It starts from the moment they park in the car park, with the welcome in person in the pro shop, and we now have a meet and greet – our golf coordinator who will meet all the parties and

make sure everything is to the visitors’ satisfaction. . There’s top class catering. It’s an excellently presented and challenging golf course.

You just feel that warm experience – ‘I really enjoyed that day and felt special’ – and that’s what we are endeavouring and driving to provide here.

By fortune, or misfortune, you’re in a golden area for golf with Hillside and Royal Birkdale as your immediate neighbours. The competition is immense and so is your role to try and gain the club the recognition it deserves? I’d like to think so. I’d like to increase the profile of the club. A lot of visitors don’t realise S&A’s history. They ask, ‘did you host the Ryder Cup?’ and we are in the process of increasing our profile with regards to marketing.

We’ve had flyovers and a video of the course just done. That has been done by members and that’s great because they want to have input and contribute to the course and the club.

We have got a great relationship with our counterparts along the England Golf Coast.

We all work together, and I think that’s fantastic. Some people think you wouldn’t do that, as competitors along that line, but that’s not the case.

We are all part of England’s Golf Coast and we contact each other to ask how we’re all getting on.

During COVID we have held Zoom meetings to discuss various matters and especially how we can work together with visitors playing our respective courses. Such networking and discussions I have found invaluable.

We all usually have a get together, as managers. For example, in March the managers and head greenkeepers play a competition and I think that networking is fantastic.

It’s all about ‘What are we doing? Can we help each other?’ It’s wonderful.

You’ve got a waiting list at S&A and so people locally know all about the club. How do you get the wider public to cast their gaze this way – when their focus might naturally fall on clubs like Royal Birkdale because of The Open? It’s all about hard work and increasing the profile of S&A. I’m going to start sounding like a stuck record in that respect.

But it’s also about enhancing our reputation through social media – with twitter, Facebook – and getting images and video out there.

Golfers like to see before they buy, that’s the same in any walk of life, and that’s why we are putting together this promotional video.

A member of the club Gary Gillespie, the former Liverpool player, did the voiceover for us, which I am extremely grateful for.

It’s fantastic. We have members with licences to fly drones and produced the flyovers.

We have developed a Ryder Cup room, which shows all the history and memorabilia from the two events we hosted.

I had one visitor who said that ‘along with Royal County Down, this is the best memorabilia golf club I have seen’.

That Ryder Cup room is a real treasure trove and reveals stories about some of the greatest players to have ever picked up a club… Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Henry Cotton – some fantastic icons of

the game. They make the game what it is today. Moving forward, we’re offering what I hope will be a Ryder Cup experience.

Have you had to change the nature of the club at all? Outsiders might perceive S&A as a quite private, very traditional, club but to get that increased profile you would, by necessity, have to open up? I don’t feel that. We’ve changed a few things operationally since my arrival and we are a traditional club. But we are a welcoming

club and when we release our new marketing literature, and our videos, you’ll see that.

We are a warm, friendly, and welcoming golf club that also has traditions. That’s very important.

There’s a drive in some quarters in golf to remove those traditions – and that will work for some clubs – but how maintain its essence? It’s very important and it’s the same ethos for my counterparts. We’ve got a good mix of members: young, colt, 40s, 50s and retired. You’ve to respect everybody but it is important to have that tradition.

We have a Captain’s presentation on a Sunday and it is collar and tie. That’s a nice tradition to keep, as well as trying to move along with the times and evolve. important has it been for S&A to

We’ve had to adapt. During these Covid times we have produced takeaways, which the membership has been fantastic in supporting.

There’s another idea that the big-name traditional wellestablished clubs couldn’t be harmed by something like Covid-19 – a sense of ‘you’ve

been shut, but you’ll get through it’. Has coronavirus proved a challenging time for S&A? Yes. I can’t deny that. But I’d like to complement the board here at Southport & Ainsdale and the finance structure they implemented prior to my arrival.

They put together a sound base looking ahead to any circumstances that occurred, obviously like Covid-19.

When we closed down in March, it was a reset button. I’ve basically gone into the business and looked at every cost and stripped it back.

We’ve tried to utilise as many grants as possible – Business Rate Relief was a huge factor for this golf club because it was nearly £45,000.

But, with regards to utilities, to insurance, to laundry, Sky, we have pressed the button and reset. We’ve done a great job.

It’s not just me. It’s my assistant manager Lesley (Thompson), it’s the staff and the board.

I find it interesting that the wider golf community might assume clubs like yourselves would be fine. You’ve clearly got a sound base to cut the cloth where you’ve Richard Kilshaw Richard Kilshaw has been a golf club manager for five years after serving as a civil servant with HMRC for a quarter of a century. Now a member at Hillside, with a handicap of 1, he had previously been at Chorley where he was captain in 2004 and served on the council and was also previously a chair. A member of the greens committee at Hillside, he self-funded a GCMA residential course at the end of 2014 and was appointed manager of Prenton, on the Wirral, in 2015. After two and half years there, he moved to Fulford in York, where he spent a year before getting the job of general manager at Southport & Ainsdale last year.

Southport & Ainsdale Southport & Ainsdale are a key part of the famed England’s Golf Coast. Best known for twice hosting the Ryder Cup in 1933 and 1937, they have also staged a host of prestigious professional and amateur tournaments, including the British Ladies’ Open and Amateur Championship. A strong test of golf, Southport & Ainsdale are a fixture of top 100 ranking lists.

needed but the assumption in the crisis is that it’s been the smaller clubs that have needed to do that. Yet the challenge has permeated throughout the industry… Massively. It was great to see membership numbers at other golf clubs increase.

At Prenton, (my first club as GM) they have a waiting list. I still keep in contact with them and that’s absolutely superb.

We haven’t seen the need for that here, but it has given the board and I a chance to stop and evaluate. That is what we’ve done.

It has been an opportune moment to do that - if a positive can come out of Covid-19 for this golf club.

Our subscription year was right in the middle of lockdown and 99 per cent of the membership renewed, which is a testament to this great club.

You’ve clearly had a successful start to your tenure. How are you going to build on that in the next six months to two years as we, hopefully, emerge from the pandemic? It’s working on a Southport & Ainsdale experience for the members and for staff – because they are such an asset to the club as well.

I am always keen to help develop staff and I will aid in any learning and development opportunities that may arise and help them in their respective careers. It is something which I/we are looking at currently during the upcoming winter period.

It’s also about an experience for visitors. We want them to think ‘that was brilliant, we really enjoyed the whole day’. That’s what I want to do.

I want to just build. I believe you can improve every year both on and off the golf course.

We’re always looking for improvement and I don’t believe in staying still.

I’ve embraced that throughout my career, I think I’ve proved that in the last five years, and it’s great to have the staff on-board with that.

I had it at Prenton, I had it at Fulford, and I have it at Southport & Ainsdale. They’re engaging with me and I really appreciate that.

Learning and Developing PROFESSIONALLY

Despite an extraordinary year that has thrown up many new challenges, the GCMA continues to evolve in order to maintain its relevance to golf club managers.

Professional development is part of this evolvement and forms an integral part of the membership offering at national and regional levels. As the GCMA Board member responsible for professional development, I have been working closely with colleagues on the board and at HQ, in particular new GCMA CEO Tom Brooke and

Professional Development Manager

Gavin Robinson, so that the GCMA can continue to provide support and prosperity for its members.

Below, I highlight some brief thoughts and ideas that inform a culture of learning and related values that form the basis for professional development at the GCMA.

The Learning Landscape

The management and leadership of golf clubs takes place in a sport and leisure industry that is changing due to wider environmental influences, be they social, technological, ecological or otherwise. The golf club and its environment continues to be subject to changing trends including:

Increased competition driven by a market supply and demand imbalance;

GCMA board member Andrew Rankin reveals the culture of learning that will form the basis for the Association’s plans for professional development

The growth of ‘nomad’ golfers;

Changes in golf club committee and member attitudes demanding an increasingly professional approach to golf club management;

The golf, sport and leisure sectors becoming increasingly professional as a result of tertiary education provision and career opportunities;

A refocusing of golf clubs as commercial as well as social enterprises where members are also seen as customers;

The effects of changes in law and regulation such as privacy rights and GDPR.

Professional Development In order to adapt the golf club and its business sustainably, golf club managers need access to a network of peers as well as a programme of learning opportunities that enables professional development.

The GCMA continues to evolve its education and training offering into a practically orientated Professional Development Programme (PDP) that is flexible, focused and modern with ensuing benefits to members and the GCMA. In evolving and adapting our offering, thought has been given to concepts in the learning landscape and their implications for best practice in PDP design and experience.

There is an acknowledgement that members develop practical knowledge or ‘know-how’ throughout working careers and that professional development is unique to each individual.

An objective of the PDP is to identify and develop knowledge, skills and behaviours that are professional, modern and relevant to members as practising golf club managers.

Knowledge It is the know-how inherent in decision-making that is associated with the notion of being ‘professional’, where competence means the ability of achieving something with precision and certainty. In this context, whilst technical knowledge may enable action, know-how is intrinsic in action and gained from the ability to learn from experience.

Skill and Decision Making Golf club managers are judged by actions – effective actions reflect

an individual’s ability to make informed decisions. There is skill involved in making decisions in management and leadership.

Skill is an ability that facilitates and is inherent in solving problems over and above a command of technical knowledge. To be skilful is to understand a body of knowledge and employ techniques creatively and flexibly in making decisions.

Developing skill and decisionmaking is at the centre of the PDP and underpins a competent – proficient - expert pathway characterised by an individual’s ability to recognise and resolve issues in practical situations.

Competence, Proficiency and Expertise Competence is characterised by routine or ‘rule bound’ decisionmaking.

Progress beyond competence depends on an individual’s motivation and ability to adopt an increasingly holistic approach to practical situations.

This in turn leads to proficiency. Proficiency is characterised by semi-

automatic decision-making where situations are thought of more deeply and issues in practical situations are recognised more quickly.

Expertise happens when the decision-making and situational understanding becomes intuitive rather than analytical. Expertise occurs as a result of significantly more experience combined with developed decision-making processes that are fast and accurate.

The relationship between speed and accuracy of thought and the resulting effectiveness of action are of central importance in expertise.

The ability to analyse, decide and act in a timely, accurate and effective manner requires automatic responses and decisions.

This expert ability reflects an individual’s capacity to perceive quickly and accurately ideas received from the senses.

A general description of skill can be modelled as follows:

Competent: sees actions partially in terms of longer-term goals, conscious deliberate planning, standardised and routinised procedures;

Proficient: sees situations holistically rather than aspects, sees what is most important in a situation, perceives deviations from the normal, decision-making less laboured, uses maxims for guidance whose meaning varies according to situation;

Expert: no longer relies on rules, guidelines or maxims, intuitive grasp of a situation based on deep tacit understanding, analytic approaches used in novel situations or when problems occur, vision of what is possible.

The Learning Environment Culture and Values In a service setting the knowledge, skills and behaviours of managers (and staff) are an important asset to organisations such as golf clubs.

The better and more forward thinking golf clubs recognise this and encourage professional development as it benefits both individuals and the organisation.

From an Association perspective, the GCMA recognises that even where a professional development culture is strong, the motive may be on preparing for organisational change or career development rather than improving the quality of individual practice.

At times there can be an issue in the continual focus on new knowledge that remains distant from personal experiences and therefore never fully understood and owned by the learner.

The potential of work related learning in professional development is often underestimated.

The objective here is that golf club managers reflect on practice in light of experiences in a collegial way.

There are also a range of other factors that affect the learning experience such as publications in various media, practical experience and people.

Publications may be readings, databases or case studies. People may be sources of knowledge and experience, such as tutors and mentors. Colleagues may provide perspectives, support and motivation.

Learning from practical experience depends on what is perceived, on time devoted to reflection and making sense of and linking experiences with knowledge.

The Benefits of Professional Development It is the intention that benefits will occur to members resulting from engagement in the learning, advancing and practising of a body of specialised knowledge, skill and behaviours.

Another objective of the PDP is to authenticate professional claims with positive reputational benefits to individual members and collectively as the GCMA.

In this sense, the organising and advancing of professional development opportunities, the

GCMA are refining knowledge, skills and behaviours as well as protecting the integrity and standards of golf club managers in a meritocratic manner.

Another objective of the PDP is to create a learning culture within the GCMA whereby members become professional learners.

It is hoped that as members understand more about the way they approach and manage their own learning, they will be better able to assess and meet their

needs whilst creating interests with peers in the wider GCMA community.

The success of individuals and the PDP will require attention to the coordination and support of a range of factors including:

Access to a variety of learning approaches;

Access to face to face and online learning;

Learner time for study, consultation and reflection; Learner support;

A system of valuing learning;

A system of capturing a learner’s professional development.

The benefits to members engaging with professional development will likely be both intrinsic and extrinsic.

It is hoped that, whilst economic imperatives may often prevail, all will be pleasantly surprised by the inherently rewarding nature of learning and growing…